Mikel Arteta says he does not want to face another painful defeat at the Etihad Stadium as Arsenal and Manchester City prepare to meet in a huge game in the title race.

The Gunners are currently top of the Premier League ahead of Sunday’s match, but they are only ahead of Liverpool on goal difference and City are a point behind them.

Arsenal have a miserable record at the Etihad and have not won there since 2015, losing their last eight games there.

The most recent of those losses came last April when the Gunners lost 4-1. The defeat was a damaging one as Arsenal let a five-point lead slip as City chased them down to win the title.

And asked about his emotions after that loss, Arteta said: “Not nice, I guarantee you.

“I don’t want to go through that again because we knew after that it was going to be very difficult, something that we fought for that many months. It was a different timing as well.”

Arsenal may be top of the League, but they are third favourites with the bookmakers to win a first title since 2004.

Arteta says he can understand that and it is up to Arsenal to change the narrative by winning at the Etihad for the first time in nine years.

“They have earned the right, for seven or eight years with what they have done,” said Arteta. “To everybody who believes they can do it again, they have given no reason to anybody else to think they cannot do it, so we have to give them the reasons.

“We haven’t done it so we cannot expect to be spoken about like City or Liverpool at the moment because we haven’t done it.

“We have to do what we feel and what the team needs and try to shape that up. They are in the best possible mindset and they are convinced and they have a feeling they can beat any opponent. We can use different tools to do that.”